After several weeks of negotiations, Celtic now appear all but certain to sign Adam Idah on a permanent basis following a successful loan spell last season.

Similar to former loanee-turned-permanent signing Paulo Bernardo, patience has played an important role from the outside looking in – which caused one numbers-savvy supporter to compare Celtic's business on a broader scale to similarly-structured clubs with similar resources earlier this month.

Using Transfermerkt data, Reddit user Own_Detail3500 has returned to take a closer look at the timeliness of Celtic's transfer dealing, and how the speed with which things move in Glasgow's east end compares to clubs elsewhere in Europe.

As before, Own_Detail3500 qualifies their findings as subjective, but they make for interesting reading nevertheless. Among the key points explored, the Redditor attempts to ascertain if Celtic are alone in leaving their dealings later in any given transfer window.

The analysis can be read in full here, but here's Own_Detail3500's summary:

  • Historically most teams do leave big business to the last day(ish). Couple of exceptions, notably Rangers and teams further down the budget list
  • [I'm] going to suggest that the Portuguese teams prepare signings from South America well in advance hence breaking at the beginning of July
  • Benfica/Ajax budgets as high (or maybe slightly higher) than I anticipated and maybe shouldn't have included them
  • The Norwegian window differs from the rest of Europe and Bodo Glimt do a lot of domestic wheeling and dealing
  • Celtic – I'd expect more business this month to come going by previous years
  • Celtic – looking at 1st July I don't think we're active enough in anticipation of new window
  • Celtic – otherwise over the space of five years spending what we might expect vs teams we want to be bettering (PSV, Salzburg, etc.)

 

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Again, the Redditor stresses they are not a lawyer or an expert, but concludes with the following summary.

"I just wanted to shed shed some light on the 'we're always slow to business' or whatever type [of] reputation we've determined for ourselves. I think on the whole it's both true and not true.

"We don't do enough pre-purchasing which points to poor planning (more work needed?) but we're also consistently active June through August and within January so not all doom and gloom.

"I think this does also dispel somewhat that we're the only team leaving things late. I think that's a general trend for all teams in this bracket."